First Microsoft megabucks, now Sun's. Given that giving copies of software licences is only a notional transfer, one could debate the real value of such "donations".

Incidentally, does anyone have an idea of what must be the worth of Free Software "donated" to India over the years? Billions of dollars?

At the end of the day, it all depends on how one values it. FN

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Sun Microsystems pledges $300 million donation to India

From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Mar 20 (IANS) Sun Microsystems, a global giant in computer networking, Thursday said it would donate software worth $300 million for non-commercial usage to Indian education institutes.

"The donation will be with respect to online training for universities and academic use," Scott McNealy, chairman and chief executive officer of the U.S.-based Sun Microsystems told media persons here.

McNealy, on a three-day visit to India to boost Sun's market presence, said the donation would help raise the level of IT research in the country and would encourage widespread adoption and use of all its products.

He said India and China had the potential to be growth engines with their remarkable growth rates as compared to Japan, the U.S. and Germany, whose growth was flat for the last few years.

McNealy promised more investments in India, especially in research and development and education and training to tap the country's vast IT talent pool.

Reacting to reports that the open source Linux was badly affecting Sun's business, McNealy said: "I cannot disagree with that more. The company that is going to be hammered by Linux is Microsoft."

He said Sun Microsystems believes in offering value added and packaged services on open source technology. McNealy said Sun was keen to work with Indian firms to develop cheap personal computers running on Linux.

--Indo-Asian News Service